


stole you away

by mollivanders



Category: The Killing
Genre: Community: vacationthon, F/M, Gen, On the Run, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-17
Updated: 2012-09-17
Packaged: 2017-11-14 11:08:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/514586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mollivanders/pseuds/mollivanders
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And still, she lingers. She tells herself she’s waiting for Jack, she doesn’t want to just run back to Rick, Seattle is her home. But as winter creeps over fall, beating the trees with icy rain, Sarah wonders.</p>
            </blockquote>





	stole you away

**Author's Note:**

  * For [crickets](https://archiveofourown.org/users/crickets/gifts).



> Title: **stole you away**  
>  Fandom: _The Killing_  
>  Rating: PG  
> Word Count: 1,375  
> Summary: Post-series, Sarah cuts her roots and builds wings. It doesn’t work.

It’s so easy – too damn easy – to slip out of her old life and into a new one. She doesn’t miss the look on Carlson’s face when she shows up at the station, having waited an hour on the street for Holder to finally leave, but she brushes it off. It’s only a moment before all the paperwork is finished and just like that, Sarah Linden is no longer an employee of the Seattle Police Department.

(Just as planned.)

But somehow every time she tries to leave Seattle, she finds a reason not to. Rick takes her calls again and after a couple weeks, even invites her down to Sonoma, as though all the wreckage of their failed romance doesn’t render any attempt pointless. Jack calls at Christmas and he sounds happy, even if he’s not ready to come home, and Sarah tries to picture a new life.

They could up and leave, like they were supposed to.

(As if Rosie Larsen never died.)

And still, she lingers. She tells herself she’s waiting for Jack, she doesn’t want to just run back to Rick, Seattle is her home. But as winter creeps over fall, beating the trees with icy rain, Sarah wonders.

She doesn’t know how long it’s been when she flips open her phone and calls him out of the blue. 

“Hey Holder,” she says, breath catching in her throat as she watches the rain fall on her windshield. “What are you up to?”

“Yo, Linden, what up?” he says and she catches a female voice on the other end. “It’s Ray’s retirement party, where are you?”

(She hadn’t realized.)

“Oh, just around,” she says, reaching for a lie she’s unable to find. “You sound good.”

“Yeah, I’m alright. You know me,” Holder says and Linden nods to the empty car, an empty space spilling over with loneliness she hadn’t been aware of until now. “Well good,” she tells him and lets him ramble for a minute about the party and the _ladies_ and Sarah, well –

“Jack’s calling,” she says, interrupting and there’s a moment that hangs between them before Holder replies. “Yeah, alright,” he says, and it sounds final. “You take care, Linden.”

(Anything but.)

+

She shows up at Ray’s party in the only dress she’d packed in her suitcase. She was going to wear it to the wedding reception and it’s too fancy by far but Jack’s call was all finality. Without homecomings, without a plan, Sarah doesn’t know where else to turn. Holder spots her across the room and any other day she’d smile at the way his jaw drops but today is not that day.

“You got anything to drink around here?” she asks, gauging his reaction. He passes her a beer and she twists the top off with ease, takes a sip while scanning the room. Old habits. “Having fun?” she asks above the din and spots a blonde at the bar who won’t stop watching them. Holder – and she’s glad for this – isn’t looking back.

“Not really,” he says and Sarah does smile this time. The beer is cold and her stomach is empty and Jack is not coming home. “Want to get out of here?” she asks and Holder takes another look at her, takes another look at that dress, and takes her arm. “You’re my ride, Linden,” he says, and her heart squeezes painfully.

(She was never supposed to be his ride.)

He drives her back to his place but they don’t get further than the kitchen. He pours her a glass of water and she drinks it while she watches him fluff pillows on the couch. She finds herself struggling for words, to talk to him about anything that isn’t familiar.

“You cleaned,” she finally says and Holder smirks at her but it falls quickly, something mirrored in her face. “I’m alright,” she says quietly, echoing his words back to him and he nods, continues to make a bed on the couch. “And I’m not sleeping on that, Holder. I’ve got a hotel room.”

“Of course you do,” he says. “This is for me.”

In defiance she slides down the wall and curls up on the floor, swirling the water around in her cup until he sits next to her, their feet extending out beside each other.

“You ever wonder what would have happened if Rosie hadn’t died?” he asks in the quiet, and she seeks his face out in the gloom of a single light. He’s staring into space, a million miles away, and Sarah suddenly realizes how very little she actually knows about Holder.

“Sonoma, probably,” she says, a wisp of regret working its way into her voice until Holder cuts it off.

“Nah,” he says and she turns to face him. “You’ve got no right,” she replies, but there’s no heat in her voice and Holder shrugs. “You wanted to go, you woulda gone,” he says and Sarah nods. “You?” she asks.

Holder’s quiet a long moment before he finally speaks. “Time we get you to bed, Linden,” he says and she laughs when he winks at her. She steals a toothbrush and borrows some pajamas, takes her hair down and watches Holder in the bathroom mirror from where he stands in the hall. 

“I like you better like this,” he says.

+

They swing by her hotel first thing in the morning and when the manager invites her back soon she smiles tightly before sweeping out the door, a single suitcase rolling behind her.

“Not likely,” Holder says with a snort from where he keeps pace with her. “Did you see the curtains in your room, Linden? Standards.”

They take turns with driving, though every ten minutes Holder has to remind Linden _she’s not a cop no more_ , so keep the risky driving to a minimum. They’re halfway through Montana when it starts to snow, and Holder begs Linden to pull over at the next motel before they freeze to death.

She humors him.

He comes back with coffee and donuts to find her standing nervously outside their room. “They didn’t have any with two beds left,” she says and Holder grins, wicked. For the first time in ages Sarah feels a shiver run down her spine. “Don’t worry, Linden,” he says. “I’m a gentleman.”

She insists. He gives in.

(Not that it’s a hard battle.)

But it’s not so bad, Holder sleeping next to her in the dark. It almost seems natural. Sarah, though, is nowhere near tired, mind full of where they’re headed. She slips out of bed and walks barefoot to the window. The snow is falling thick, their car half-buried, and she realizes this is something a rational, sane person would have thought about before they embarked on a cross-country trip in January.

Even in the dark Holder manages to sneak up on her, his voice low and hollow as it startles her. She sees him now, reflected darkly in the window, and she turns her head to look back up at him.

“Thought you left,” he says, and for the first time since she came back his eyes are unguarded and terribly, awfully familiar. She did leave him. She meant to.

(She never wanted to.)

“Think we’ll make it?” she asks, false cheer in her voice and meets Holder’s gaze in the reflection.

“Well if we don’t,” he teases, “you’ll just be stuck with me.”

“That wouldn’t be so bad,” she admits and it costs her everything and nothing to say it.

There’s a long stillness before he replies and he sounds different when he does.

“You’d be the luckiest woman around, Linden,” he says, and it’s only half a joke.

+

They hit Chicago two days later, layers of deep snow overcome behind them. Holder pulls up outside of Jack’s school and for a moment, Sarah is panicked, desperate, before throngs of teenagers escape the doors. Jack is in there, somewhere.

“Ready?” Holder asks and Sarah opens her door, steps out into a cold blast of wind. “As I’ll ever be,” she replies when Holder leans against the car next to her.

“So no then,” he says and Sarah elbows him, spotting Jack in the crowd. “Yes,” she insists. 

This time, she means it.

_Finis_


End file.
